


Finding Sleep

by LetoaSai



Series: StrifeHart Fluff [28]
Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Alternate Universe, Bonding, Coping Mechanisms, Kind hearted kids, M/M, Nightmares, They succeeded, they just wanted to help
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-15
Updated: 2019-11-15
Packaged: 2021-01-30 14:14:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,918
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21429544
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LetoaSai/pseuds/LetoaSai
Summary: It figures Cloud would be the one to have a nightmare with a house full of children on the one night Leon was away.
Relationships: Cloud/Leon (Kingdom Hearts), Leon (Kingdom Hearts)/Squall Leonhart/Cloud Strife
Series: StrifeHart Fluff [28]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1108581
Comments: 20
Kudos: 124





	Finding Sleep

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts or any Final Fantasy. 
> 
> Thank you YAJJ for the prompt! I've been kicking it around for a bit but i finally got it to work out!

Nightmares came in all shapes and sizes. Some were just a swirl of colors and movements. There would be no real visual alarm but the emotional dread still took hold. Cloud had nightmares where it was nothing but a blind panic. The stress and dread of feelings he’d felt before in reality seeping into his dreams. 

Some were strangely suffocating where he was trapped, unable to see or escape his surroundings. The ones where he was slowly crushed or killed made their appearances from time to time too. All of them were his PTSD symptoms visiting him for one reason or another. It had gotten better over the years, it really had, but nothing was a perfect cure. 

There were nightmares where he relived terrible moments in his life. Some went as far back as living on the streets for a short time after his mother died with his younger brother holding his hand. They jumped through his life and circled around his time with SOLDIER. Those were some of the worst nightmares to deal with. He’d woken up crying on more than one occasion. He’d woken up mid fight too. 

He’d had awful dreams of something happening to Leon. Some vague and mysterious where he would just disappeared and some more gruesome where he’d been Cloud’s opponent at war. Everytime he woke up thinking he’d killed Leon had left him shaking and restless and occasionally throwing up. Afterwards he was quickly wrapped up in his husbands arms. 

Leon was good at figuring out what sort of nightmare Cloud had woken up from. The fingers carding through his hair often put him at ease and the light kisses pressed to his face reminded him where he was. The reminders were the best part when he woke up in a daze of fear. Feeling Leon’s hands gently traveling across his skin made him calmly aware of his surroundings again. It made him remember the right now and not the dream he’d been trapped in. 

It was almost some perverse kind of normal when Cloud woke up panting, his own breathing loud and painful sounding. His nightmare had spliced together with others and it was like he could smell the blood he’d been drenched in. 

In the dream he’d been on his back, and the simple difference of waking up on his stomach had him disoriented and trembling. His heart was going a mile a minute and the chill of the opposite side of his bed had his stomach rolling. Leon wasn’t there. 

Where was Leon? WherewasLeonWherewasLeonWherewasLeon.

“Cloud…” 

Cloud shot up, his legs curled underneath him ready to move if he had to. His bedroom was dim, but light streamed in from the hall light and his open bedroom door. 

“It’s just a bad dream, Cloud…” Ventus stood a few feet away from the bed with wide eyes. He fidgeted with his pajama shirt but watched Cloud carefully. 

Everything took longer to sink in than it should have. Usually things were sharp when he woke up. He wasn’t one of those people that took hours to get going in the morning but nightmares had always affected him poorly. Cloud just stared at Ventus, feeling lightheaded and confused. 

Why was Ventus in his room? Was he still dreaming?

He hated those kinds of nightmares, the ones that looped around waking up over and over again until he was aware he’d been dreaming the whole time. 

“It’s just a bad dream.” Ventus said, inching closer. “Are you okay?” 

Cloud swallowed, looking around his room and trying to regain his bearings. He could still smell blood and there was no hiding the shake of his hands from the child. 

“Where’s Squall?” His voice was rough and he couldn’t remember why. Had he been screaming?

“Um.” Ventus muttered. “Squall’s not here. He had his teacher thing.” 

Oh. Right. Squall had a weekend seminar he couldn’t get out of and wouldn’t be back until presumably lunch time. He’d been gone a day and a half already. 

“Remember?” Ventus asked nervously.

“Yeah…” Cloud nodded, trying to force himself to relax, glancing at the time to find it only just after four a.m. “What… What are you doing up sweetheart? Did i wake... you?” 

Ventus shook his head and crept closer to sit on the side of the bed. “No. I had to pee. I heard you when i was going back to bed. You sounded like you were hurt.” 

Cloud ran a hand through his own sweat soaked hair. “Yeah. I’m sorry about that, Ven.” He looked up when Vanitas pushed into the room with Cloud’s usual mug in his hand. Even in the poor light Cloud could see it steaming with the tea bag hanging out of it. 

“Um, here.” Vanitas muttered, setting the cup down on the bedside table. “I dunno if it’s right.” 

Cloud felt his throat tightened and it took longer than usual to be able to answer. “Thank you.” 

“You weren’t kidding about having nightmares too.” Vanitas mumbled, shifting from one foot to the other. “I thought maybe you were. To make us feel better.” 

“Oh no.” Cloud managed a smile for them. “It’s why i know exactly how scary it can be when Ventus has a night terror. I’ve had them a long time and believe it or not, they’re a lot better than they used to be.” He reached out to take the mug and gulped the too hot tea. It was borderline too sweet with sugar and honey added to it but Cloud could have cared less in that moment because Vanitas had gone through the trouble for him. 

Ventus patted Cloud’s arm, face filled with empathy. “I’m sorry you had a bad dream when Squall’s not here. He’s the one that makes you feel better, right?” 

Cloud nodded slowly. “Yeah, he is, but you two are doing a pretty good job.” 

Vanitas wandered around to Squall’s side of the bed and climbed in. “Do you wanna talk about it?” he asked, mimicking Cloud every time he sat with one of them after a nightmare. 

Absolutely not. “Well…” Cloud began anyway. “Sometimes my dreams aren’t regular dreams. Sometimes it’s more feelings than scary things chasing me.” 

Ventus made an unsettled sound in his throat. “I’ve had those. Like i’m so, so scared and i don’t even know why.” 

Cloud nodded. “It’s like that sometimes. Squall will ask me what the nightmare was about and i don’t even know what to tell him. It’s just bad feelings.” 

“I don’t like those.” Ventus whispered. 

“No, i don’t either.” Cloud said, wrapping his arm around Ventus. “None of them are fun.” 

“Maybe they’ll stop now since you already had one tonight.” Vanitas yawned and rubbed at his face. “Or should we do a mediation. We can do one in here?” 

“Can we? In here?” Ventus asked, looking just as tired as his twin. They clearly weren’t expecting the early wake up call either. 

“Sure. Do you two want to stay here? You can have Squall’s whole side of the bed.” Cloud pulled the comforter out and Vanitas moved underneath it with Ventus climbing to move into the middle. 

It was almost surprising that the pair of them settled in so easily, but Cloud remembered clearly a night when he was thirteen where he’d had a bad nightmare and ended up crying all over Cid. You never knew when trust would bloom. 

Cloud grabbed his phone off the table and sipped at his tea again while pulling up a meditation. He picked one he knew the boys liked that happened to be two hours long. They settled against the pillows and Cloud tried to focus on the boys rather than his out anxious thoughts. Within ten minutes both Ventus and Vanitas were asleep and Cloud thought he might actually manage to sleep again himself. 

The phantom smell of blood disappeared, replaced with the smell of clean sheets and the coconut of the boys soap. 

He couldn’t remember the last time he’d fallen asleep after a nightmare without Leon but he must have… 

~

Leon dropped his bag just inside the door and breathed in the sheer relief of being home. Fuck other places, why did he ever leave? He’d bailed hours early, lying through his teeth saying that one of his kids had a fever and left. 

No one was going to question him leaving to be a good father. 

It was early yet but he could hear cartoons on in the living room and found his three youngest sitting at the coffee table with bowls of cereal. 

“Hey babes.” 

“Daddy’s home!” Sora gasped and grinned. “Hi daddy.” 

“Morning daddy.” Riku said around a mouthful of cereal. 

Leon chuckled. “Hey, i’m so hungry. We’re having an easy breakfast today i see. Papa being lazy?” 

“Papa’s still sleeping.” Roxas said, pouring more cereal into his bowl.

“Papa’s still…” Leon blinked. Cloud woke with the sun. Cloud woke before the sun. Cloud not up by nine a.m. was...weird. “Sleeping?” 

“Someone had a nightmare.” Sora said as if it were normal and some weeks it was. 

“Yeah, there’s music playing.” Roxas said. “We looked but we were real quiet.” 

Riku hummed around his spoon. “Papa looked like his was sleeping for real and not fake sleeping.”

“I see. We’ll i’ll have to go check on them, won’t i?” Leon said, not getting his feelings hurt when the boys turned their attention back to their cartoon. 

He wandered down the hall, assuming Cloud had slept in the boys room until he found them all stretched out in his bed. Cloud was actually sleeping with Ventus half draped across his chest and Vanitas curled up against his brothers back. Squall’s side of the bed was completely empty while Cloud was crowded on his. 

Leon smiled, doing what any loving husband and father would do in this situation. He pulled out his phone to take pictures before silently moving into the room. The meditation playing on Cloud’s phone was on repeat and he could only imagine how many times it had started over. 

He wondered if it had been a long night and how things had gone while he was away. Cloud didn’t need someone looking over his shoulder, but it was always easier with two parents lingering around. He leaned down, pressing a kiss to Cloud’s forehead. When he pulled away he was met with Cloud’s groggy stare. 

“You’re home?” Cloud muttered. 

“Tiny bit early.” Leon agreed quietly. “Who had the nightmare?” 

Cloud blinked up at him slowly and offered him a faint smile. “I did…” 

Leon frowned, worry warring across his face. “Rain Cloud…” He pressed another kiss to Cloud brow then the tip of his nose. 

“It’s okay.” Cloud nodded his head towards the boys. “There were good substitute nightmare chasers about.” 

“I can see that.” Leon muttered, fondness clutching at his heart. “You gonna stay put till they wake up?” 

“Yeah, i’m not gonna wake them up again.” Cloud said tiredly, practically purring when Leon buried his fingers in his hair for a moment. 

Leon hummed in understanding. “Rest. I’ll occupy the other three. Though really, they occupied themselves.” 

Cloud snorted, eyes sliding shut again though he was all too pleased to get the last kiss Leon offered him before leaving the room. 

He’d rest a while longer, but the thoughts of his nightmare were gone and replaced by affection he felt for these boys. Nightmares happened but they didn’t last forever.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey! There's another fic now connected to this series. It's about Ventus and Vanitas before they were taken by Child services. 
> 
> The Night Before: Written by Kutikue
> 
> It's so super good and i really appreciate them sending me the gift fic. I hope all of you enjoy it too. Here's a link. 
> 
> https://archiveofourown.org/works/21379630
> 
> Series Master List in Order
> 
> Out of Order  
A Winning Distraction (in the middle of Out of Order)  
Quiet Midnight (in the middle of Out of Order)  
First Dance  
Until Monday  
Repeat  
Not enough treats  
Wager  
Calling Home (technically just before and just after Wager)  
Renewals  
Date Night  
Sick Lions  
Bad Memories  
Not Perfect (could really fit in a few places, here is fine)  
Patience  
Long Weekends  
Fever  
Melee  
Time will Tell  
Rumble  
A Day for Two  
Summer Sun  
Homemade  
Moving on  
Probably Haunted  
The Night Before: by Kutikue  
It’s only two more  
Safeguard  
Finding Sleep


End file.
